Colorado City residents are, once again required to pick up their mail at the Pueblo Main Post Office at 1022 Fortino Blvd. Most-recent Colorado City Postmaster Terry Irick ‘chose to terminate his contract and responsibility to the local community and was released from that responsibility’ according to a statement issued by the United States Postal Service. Irick, last Tuesday night (July 26), spoke at the Colorado City Metro District meeting, indicating that if four or five contractual obligations assumed by the USPS were not met by Saturday, he would leave the Post Office. Irick did not go into specific detail about the unmet obligations, but in a separate conversation last Saturday he stated that budgeted money for employees had not arrived and the expenses were coming out of his pocket.
A call from the Greenhorn Valley View to Post Mistress Sue Grasmick, at the Fortino location, resulted in Grasmick saying she was not answering any questions and referred the newspaper to James Boxrud. Boxrud then indicated that media questions were to go through him, that the Postmaster was following USPS operating procedures, and re-emailed the official notice of the mail pickup in Pueblo.
A follow up email by the Greenhorn Valley View, asking Boxrud specific questions about the Irick’s concerns was not responded to by press time.
Hours of operation for the Fortino location are from 9:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. Monday thru Friday and 10:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.
The official USPS notice included the following at the end of the paragraph. “We apologize for this inconvenience. This is only a temporary solution until we can evaluate our options in Colorado City.”
After the Metro District meeting, the District drafted a letter to Senator’s Michael Bennett and John Hickenlooper and Representative Lauren Boebert.
Monday, Cathy Gracia, Southern Colorado Regional Director for Boebert, forwarded the postal edict and indicated that Boebert’s office would be checking in weekly with the USPS to find the status of locating another contractor for the Post Office because, as stated by Boebert’s office, “This is a major inconvenience for the residents of Colorado City.”
Nothing has been heard from either Senator.
At the suggestion of a reader, the Greenhorn Valley View has also reached out to Channel 5 and Channel 11, to help shed some light on this situation. At press time, neither channel had returned the phone call.
If you would like to be part of the effort to bring the issue to the attention of people who might be able to help, here is the contact information.
Representative Lauren Boebert: https://boebertforms.house.gov/forms/write yourrep. Or you can call Cathy Garcia, Southern Colorado Regional Director in the Pueblo Office at 503 N. Main, at (719) 696-6970.
Senator John Hickenlooper can be reached at https://www.hickenlooper.senate.gov. The Senator has an office in Colorado Springs at 102 S. Tejon, Ste 930. That phone number is (202)224-5941.
Senator Michael Bennett can be reached at https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact. The nearest Bennett office is in Denver at 1244 Speer Blvd. The phone number is 303-455-7600.
Mr. Boxrud who was mentioned earlier in the article can be reached at (303) 313-5134 or (970) 278-6607.
The Postmaster at the Fortino site, Sue Grasmick, can be reached at (719) 543-4988.
USPS District Manager Jason McMahill can be reached at (303) 853-6160. Watch for updates before
Watch for updates before next week at www.greenhornvalleyview.com in Breaking News.